Profile: Pervez Musharraf

Eight years after seizing control in a coup, General Musharraf, 64, will become Pakistan's longest-serving leader if the supreme court allows him to serve a third, five-year term as president.

Treated as a pariah after the coup, he became a vital Western ally after the terrorist attacks on America on September 11 2001 and has been credited with bringing his country back from the brink of bankruptcy, opening peace talks with India and promoting a more free press.

But critics say he consolidated power at the expense of rival secular leaders, creating a political vacuum that has been filled by Islamists.

A former army commando, he was promoted to general and named army chief in 1998. In 1999 he seized power from the prime minister, Nawaz Sharif.

General Musharraf first led the country as chief executive and won a five-year presidential term in a 2002 referendum, which critics say was rigged.